Afton
Nelson County, Virginia
It took three tries and several months, but 16 year old Chris Hodge of Nelson County, Virginia – with some help from his brothers and cousin, Ben Samuels, succeeded. This past weekend they finished their replica ferris wheel in the gym at The Rockfish Valley Community Center in Afton. “It took probably about a week. I built most of it at home in sections and then set it up here,” Chris told us Monday. He left the ferris wheel up so we could grab a picture before crashing it all down. The wheel is made from roughly 10,337 pieces of Connex, a distant cousin of Legos!
Most of you may remember the Hodge family from their fame as professional jugglers who recently set three world records in juggling. It’s a family affair, including Chris.
“The first try the axle wasn’t strong and it just fell out. The second time we had too many seats on and it had too much weight and it collapsed. This time we put half as many seats on and it worked,” Chris adds.
It took about 3 seconds for the entire wheel to fall to the gym floor after pulling out a couple of key pieces!
Very neat guys, very neat!
Nice project! That took some planning, discipline, and endurance not to mention an impressive attention span!